01 February 2003

[SpaceCanada]

It's not Boomerang's commentary (and I hope he will post his wonderful summary soon) but this is the tragedy that strikes closest to my heart.

First, a long-time friend of mine stayed with Kalpana Chawla for a day whilst attending the International Space School the summer before the mission. Among other reasons, her being on board kept me glued to every detail of that mission. I was a NASA TV junkie for that mission more than any other.

Then, I remember waking up early to watch the landing on my internet feed at home and prying myself away from the computer minutes before landing to go to work. My co-workers told me 'the shuttle blew up' when I got there and I thought they were joking because I was grumbling about how I had to miss the touch-down because of work. When I found out it was true my stomach sank and I glued my eyes to CNN whenever I had a spare moment. I could hardly teach swim lessons (my job then). I felt sick. I cried. I was like a ghost, a drone, a shell, empty inside, for at least two weeks afterwards in shock. I still think of that mission every time a shuttle goes up.

STS-107 holds a special place in my heart. The best way to honour their crew is to continue spaceflight. They would have wanted us to keep going, and we are.

[Boomerang]

Thanks for your thoughts as well on this spacecanada.

February 1, 2003 shortly before 9:am est the space shuttle Columbia was returning to earth following 16 days of intense scientific research. 16 daye\s earlier NASA became concerned when reviewing launch films and seeing a briefcase sized chunk of insulating foam strike the left wing of the orbiter. All analysis however said that foam wouldnt seriously damage the RCC panel Sadly the simulator software used was designed primarily for very small impacts and was not up to the job. The 7 person crew began reentry unaware that a gaping hole had been punched in the shuttles wing thats estmated to have been 10-14 inches across. As reentry began communications was eratic though that had been expected. Then the first signs of a problem began. Temperature sensors inside the left wing began dropping out. Again this wasn;t unheard of. Then the tire pressure reading went to 0 in the left landing gear. MOCR contacted the crew about the drop out in sensor readings and the last message from Columbia was recieved at 9 am est. a response to the tire pressure call. Though audio communications were lost telemetry was still being recieved and soom the nose gear pressure reading was lost and shortly all telemetry went out. Noone in MOCR knew what was happening as noo visual sight was possible with the orbiter.

Over west Texas hwever viewers on the ground were seeing a diffrent sight. Mant had come out to watch the rare sight of the orbiter coming in over the US only to see the trail breaking into pieces. When the orbiter communications were lost a series of events began. as i understand it from telemetry recovered later the left wing was burned off and the orbiter began tumbling. telemetry shows Commander Rick Husband and Pilot Willy Mccool tried to regain control manually but there was little to regain control of and Columbia broke up.

Still unaware of what happened CAPCOM continued to call out in vein for a comm check. The flight director asked when they were expecting to have Columbia on Radar appriaching the Cape only to be told 2 minutes ago. Then the phone call came to one of the flight controlers saying that Columbia had been seen breaking up over Texas. Thats when flight director Leroy Cain gave the command no Flight wants to give "Lock the Doors" indicating that a contingency had been called and that MOCR was in lock down to preserve all data.

In the weeks and months that followed all test indicated it was the foam impact that doomed Columbia and her crew. The ET was redesigned to eliminate foam in the worse areas of shedding and Discovery Returned to flight in July 2005.

Columbia's Crew

Commander Rick Husband vetran of STS-96 making his second space flight. A devut christian who had no problem sharing his faith with his friends and crewmates.

Pilot Willy McCool rookie astronaut. Chawla said Willy was an 8 year old trapped in a 10 year olds body referring to his boyish look and demeanor.

Payload Commander Michael Anderson vetran of STS-89.

Mission Specialist Kaplana Chawla vetran of STS-87

Mission Specialist Laurel Clark rookie

Mission Specialist David Brown Rookie and grduate of Eastern Virginia Medical School (had to throw that in here since its a local medical school)

Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon rookie and Israe;s first astronaut.

This was one accident that hit me very hard. Like space canada i was in total shock and quiet for several days. For me i was on my way to work as a volunteer at Langley's visitor center when i turned on CNN to watch the landing only to find out what had happened. Hardest part of that day was when i had to tell a friend of mine who was a retired NASA engineer what had happened since he had not heard yet. Everyone at work was glued to the television that day trying to leanr what had happened. At the same time having to deal with reporters of our own and people who had alot of questions that noone yet had answers to.

I always hope that an accident like this wont ever happen again. But part of me knows it most likely will. This is not a safe business and unfortunatel people have died and will probably die again in the future. At the same time i know NASA is doing all it can to keep its crews as safe as possible.

[monkeynautt]

Columbia is different for me (and maybe others on here) because I was actually old enough to remember it. I not quite 1 when Challenger exploded. I was almost 18 when Columbia happened and I remember everything that happened that day and afterwards. I watched CNN for 2 days straight and have all the newspapers saved. It's hard to believe that its been 5 years as it feels like yesterday that it happened.

[gt0163c]

I was almost 18 when Columbia happened and I remember everything that happened that day and afterwards. I watched CNN for 2 days straight and have all the newspapers saved. It's hard to believe that its been 5 years as it feels like yesterday that it happened.

That's pretty much how I was when Challenger exploded. I was in 5th grade. We were eating lunch and the principal came in, blew his whistle (to get everyone quiet), made the announcement...I don't remember what he said and then left. When I got home from school I remember watching every network running the launch footage over and over and over again. In the coming days and weeks, I would take some ridicule and get lots of questions from friends about whether I still wanted to be an astronaut. I didn't waver from that desire during that time. In some ways, I enjoyed the chance to learn more about the shuttle and the space program as so much of the technical information became more readily available.

For Columbia, I was in Atlanta for and wind tunnel test for work. One of the tunnel guys stuck his head into the room where I was working and said, "It looks like we lost the shuttle". It took a couple of seconds for it to register what he was talking about. I knew the shuttle was set to land but hadn't been following the mission that closely, as I was focused on work. I turned to my coworker (who's also my best work friend) who was on the trip with me and quickly switched over to the laptop that could connect to the world outside of the tunnel. We kept CNN.com up for the rest of the shift. I called my sister to give her a heads-up as my oldest nephew was old enough to get what a space shuttle is and might be watching tv and be upset about the incident. If I had been at home, I probably would have been outside watching and listening for the shuttle to go over (I live in Fort Worth, TX). A sad day indeed.